Dinner Theater: A Revival Open Access

Rosenthal, Tess (Spring 2023)

Permanent URL: https://etd.library.emory.edu/concern/etds/c821gm10n?locale=en
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Abstract

Dinner theater is often associated with tourists, senior citizens, and bland food. However, it reflects why generation z and millennials engage with art as well as addresses the most common barriers to entry for generation z and millennials. This project attempts to create a dinner theater concept designed primarily for young adults. It does so through examining the qualities of dinner theater that make it an effective storytelling medium and looking at the past and present of dinner theater to guide the development of the new concept. To develop the process, the project examined three parts of dinner theater: the theater, the dinner, and the business. The culmination of this development process was to create a business plan to examine the viability of said dinner theater concept as an operating entity.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................................................................... 1

CHAPTER ONE........................................................................................................................................................................ 3

What is Dinner Theater?....................................................................................................................................................... 3

Why Dinner Theater?...................................................................................................................................................... 4

The History of Dinner Theater........................................................................................................................................ 6

Forms of Dinner Theater (Present).................................................................................................................................. 8

The Future of Dinner Theater........................................................................................................................................ 11

CHAPTER TWO..................................................................................................................................................................... 13

The Theater.......................................................................................................................................................................... 13

Finding the Content....................................................................................................................................................... 13

The Plot and Characters................................................................................................................................................ 14

CHAPTER THREE................................................................................................................................................................ 17

The Dinner........................................................................................................................................................................... 17

CHAPTER THREE................................................................................................................................................................ 21

The Business........................................................................................................................................................................ 21

The Businesses Model................................................................................................................................................... 21

The Importance of Social Media................................................................................................................................... 22

The Location.................................................................................................................................................................. 25

CHAPTER FOUR................................................................................................................................................................... 26

The Business Plan............................................................................................................................................................... 26

CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................................................................ 44

Bibliography............................................................................................................................................................................ 46

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